Aerospace engineer Julian Sharpe is so confident in the disaster-proof pod he has invented that he is willing to test it by going over Niagara Falls.

“I’m aware there are huge restrictions, and it may not even be possible, in which case we would be looking for an alternative waterfall,” said Sharpe, 50, a British inventor who now lives in the United States. “There is one here in Washington that would be doable,”

Niagara Falls is the preferred site for Sharpe’s pod, which is built for people to survive natural disasters.

“Niagara is the pinnacle for this kind of thing and we would go to the authorities when we are ready,” he said.

A representative for the Niagara Parks Commission, the provincial agency responsible for the area around the falls, could not be reached Friday to comment on Sharpe’s proposal.

But the parks commission typically does not allow stunts on the Niagara River. Daredevils who have gone over the falls in barrels or other contraptions have done it without the government agency’s blessing. Survivors are usually charged.

The parks commission made an exception to its anti-stunting policy last year to allow wirewalker Nik Wallenda to cross the gorge on a tightrope. At the time, commissioner said it was a once-in-a-generation exception.

Sharpe said his pod would benefit people worldwide.

“We want to do something good for the world. There are 135 countries in the world that are exposed to the tsunami wave. The next big earthquake in Japan is expected to be south of Tokyo Bay where two-and-a-half million people are exposed.”

His capsules or pods are designed to hold two, four, six, eight or 10 people and would be tested under laboratory conditions before they would be sent over the Horseshoe Falls.

“We just want to make people aware that there is an option and that it’s pretty rugged … we know it’s going to be strong and we would send it over with crash-test dummies first of all just to understand the accelerations and g-loads, but then if hopefully we could get a permit, it would be nice to go over,” said Sharpe, a former Boeing engineer.

He has worked in the aerospace industry for six years and is the president and CEO of a company called Survival Capsule LLC.

Sharpe and vice-president Scott Hill would occupy two of the seats in the capsule going over the Falls, and the other four seats could be auctioned off with the money given to a local charity, he said.

He suggests advertising could also be sold on the outside of the capsule to help raise additional funds. His plan is not to profit from the Niagara Falls venture, but to show people how they can remain safe and to make them more aware of the lifesaving capabilities of the capsules.

Sharpe said Japan is quite interested in his invention because it could save many lives if they are struck by more tsunamis such as the ones that hit Thailand and Japan.

The capsules, which are made from aluminium, have been designed not only to withstand impacts and penetration from sharp objects, but also to guard against fire, which is a big problem during a tsunami.

“It cannot be built out of plastic because in a tsunami condition a lot of the debris fuel catches fire,” Sharpe said. “If you look at a lot of the images and videos that were taken you will see they had a lot of fires.”

The main danger in a tsunami is not drowning but from being crushed by the debris.

The pods could be stored on the roofs of buildings. In case of a disaster, people would head to the rooftop and get inside the pods.

Sharpe said many times people don’t have a means of escape. They have tried to use aerospace technology to give people a choice.

“We have come up with a device that can hopefully save lives in terms of riding the tsunami out rather than trying to flee from it.”

The company has built two full-sized and functioning prototypes. It has also teamed up with Eddie Bernard, who is a world-renowned expert and consultant on issues dealing with tsunami warning systems, tsunami mitigation and education programs, and tsunami research.

The company has made a video that shows a capsule being built and tested under stress conditions. The video was made so that it could be shown at the Japanese Disaster Preparedness Expo held earlier this month in Yokohama, Japan.

People who have used a ball-type capsule to go over Niagara Falls:

1928 — On July 4, Jean Lussier went over the falls in a large ball with a spring steel frame and a rubber covering

1951 — On Aug. 5, William “Red” Hill, Jr. (son of William “Red” Hill, Sr.) went over the falls in a craft he named “The Thing”. The vessel broke apart on impact and Hill was killed

1961 — On July 15, Nathan Boya (also known as William Fitzgerald) went over the falls in a rubber ball nicknamed the “Plunge-O-Sphere”

1993 — On Sept. 26, David Munday went over the falls in a steel ball. It was his second time over Niagara Falls. The first trip was in 1985. He tried again in 1990, but his barrel became stuck at the brink.

Eyes of the world about to be turned on the craziness that is Niagara Falls.

Events regarding the Niagara Falls tightrope walk scenario that have already happened and are about to happen were described in The Wycked Falls before they happened.

The Wycked Falls: Descent into the Maelstrom

This is the book that described what was going to happen before it happened.

As the date for the tightrope walk draws into its final week we can observe many of the events described in a similar scenario in The Wycked Falls taking place with almost eerie coincidence. The frenzy is just beginning to ramp up and a few people have died at the Falls already. Businesses are beginning to prepare for what they hope is an influx of customers. Niagara Falls New York has planned a whole day festival around the exhibition. Hotels are taking reservations. Security is gearing up. Television networks are setting up their equipment. There is controversy over how the wire will be strung. There is an air of both curiosity and excitement permeating the circus atmosphere. And we have just gone through a full moon cycle. The stage is set. But there is more to come—mark these words. There is no place else on earth like it. This is Niagara.

This is beginning to look more and more like an orchestrated scam on the order of Evil Knievel Snake River Canyon jump a number of years ago. How soon we forget. The latest news out of Niagara is that there is a dispute over the helicopter air rights as they prepare to string the tightrope wire across the Niagara Gorge. So while the organizers look to another company with the correct licensing, the original helicopter company wants to stay involved in the case of a rescue attempt. Of course they do, and that’s where this whole thing is headed– mark my words. Because with the requirement that Nik Wallenda be tethered to his tightrope, that’s the only way this fiasco is going to produce any excitement. And Nik Wallenda’s handlers know it. They know that a successful walk is going to be about as exciting as surfing on Lake Erie. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they are orchestrating the whole rescue scenario or some kind of variation, as we speak. This is the only way that the event will be somewhat memorable, but in the end we will all be left with the hollow feeling that once again we were duped.

Read what I wrote on May 24.

Had I been in his shoes I would’ve done it another way. This is the alternative that his manager Winston Simone should have proposed. It would have been the Niagara Falls version of the Snake River Canyon jump or fiasco as some people referred to it. On the surface many people probably still swear by the authenticity of Evel Knievel’s jump over the Snake River. But there are many others, who after examining the stunt a little more closely have determined that Evel Knievel probably never intended to make a successful jump. It was a staged failure to create the illusion of tragedy. I referred to it as a control or planned failure because it was accomplished with a minimal amount of risk to the daredevil(here I use the term loosely.

Evel Knievel was probably more at risk for injury if his vehicle landed on the other side of the canyon–due to the height and the velocity it would have been traveling. We’ve seen enough slow-motion video of Evel tumbling over the handlebars of his motorcycle after jumping a row of cars and watching all the damage that was done to his body as he caterwauled across the pavement of a parking lot. I maintain that Evel Knievel never intended to be in a vehicle upon impact at Snake River. Instead he was going to be floating gently down to the confines of the canyon and that was the plan from the outset. There was only one element of danger in this whole scenario and that was that the parachute open and I’m sure it would have had all kinds of redundancy and backups in place to ensure that that happened. The danger was very minimal in this contrived failure– less than it would have been with a successful crossing. However it was a visually spectacular failure with the inclusion of heightened danger. It was a cleverly crafted hoax but one that left an observer feeling like he got something for his money. However, the event was tainted and it impacted the respectability of the rest of Evel’s career.

If Wallenda is going to go in this direction he should at least follow the example of this script, if he wants to manufacture some excitement. First of all, get rid of the tether–the danger has to be perceived as real. After you’ve got their attention –and money– then they can judge whether it was really dangerous. Parachuting from this height would probably not work as the chute would not have sufficient time to deploy. It might break his fall enough to prevent death but serious injury would not be eliminated. Wallenda should go out on the wire and do some stunts for the entertainment value–ride a bike, lay down on the wire, whatever. At some point he could begin to mimic the wire wobble of his great grandfather. Even Nik Wallenda has stated that he has been trained to grab the wire if he encountered any difficulty. (I wonder if this was an effort to appease the network and make it seem like there was a measure of safety in place.

In any event he should go into his great grandfather’s prefall crouch-drop the balancing pole into the gorge for dramatic effect and grab the wire. Suspended from the wire, the audience would be transfixed. At this point the crowd would be screaming. A helicopter could be deployed in a few minutes and effect a rescue–a rope ladder would be a nice touch and the visual imagery evoked from this orchestration would be priceless with a relatively minimal amount of risk.

Historical tightrope walk is nothing more than a glorified zipline crossing.

Even the ghosts of Niagara Falls implore Wallenda and ABC to do the right thing.

Have you ever gone into the produce section of a grocery store looking for a tomato. There are plenty to choose from and almost all of them are nice and round, unblemished, waxed polished and shiny with just the right color of redness to suggest peak ripeness, so that it almost looks like a piece of art. This is all designed to subliminally convince the shopper that this food specimen is an engineered piece of perfection and therefore it must taste delicious. However, it isn’t until you bite into it that the deception is revealed—the anticipated expectation of flavor—is met with disappointment. Instead what you get is a blandness of taste—a hollowness more associated with a piece of cardboard. You’ve been had. The disappointment is made even greater if you have ever experienced the true hearty flavor of a homegrown, garden variety, old fashioned beefsteak only a few of us can still remember from our youth. Those garden raised tomatoes were often misshapen and scarred and it wasn’t too long before they spoiled, but the taste and juiciness was indelible. It was what a tomato was supposed to be like. It was the real thing and the memory of it still produces a craving that is rarely sated in this world of imposters. It has been replaced by a doppelganger that on the surface looks the same(even better) in texture and color and will have 2-3 times the shelf life but inside is devoid of taste—a hollow shell with no substance—an absence of soul. There are many things that have gone this route and that list will soon include Niagara Falls.

I know many people are going to take issue with this point of view. Who cares, they say, it is still going to bring us a lot of attention. They see this walk as an opportunity to put the spotlight on the Niagara region and that will result in more tourism and economic gain(and God knows the area needs it) and to showcase all things Niagara. I stand in favor of all those things. Don’t get me wrong, I love Niagara Falls. I was born here and I grew up here. I think that it is one of the most interesting places on the planet and its history has always fascinated me but it is just because I can remember its history that I cannot reconcile this sham of a tight rope scam.

Having read about and heard about the exploits of daredevils through the years, the denizens here have always been immersed in the activities that centered around the Falls. There were all sorts of contraptions and schemes concocted to capitalize on the synergy of the majesty of the Falls and so there really is no purist tradition to defend but there was a common thread that enveloped all these endeavors. That thread was that a life hung in the balance. One put their skill or ingenuity(or foolishness) on the line and it was the whimsy of The Falls and its elements that decided life or death. Not a distant television network. This is not the way it has been done at Niagara Falls. We’re being asked to eat a store bought tomato and I for one don’t want to have that hollow feeling relegated to my hometown when everybody elseis trying to spit out the cardboard aftertaste. I want to remember the sense of admiration and respect we all held for those men who risked their lives for this adventure in this one of a kind venue. And for those that lived and died and who made this the heart of the legacy here. On this Memorial Day, as we remember those that have fallen in battle, I feel that in that spirit, the dare devils of Niagara deserve a little homage as well as they are about to be dishonored on June 15th.

I also want to take issue with the historical nature of this walk. It won’t be in the tradition of the walks of Blondin of Farini(they didn’t use tethers) so in what way is it history? What if Wallenda falls off the wire during the walk, is saved by the tether, climbs back up and concludes the crossing. Would this be considered a successful crossing? Under the conditions followed by Farini and Blondin, they would have never been afforded this second or for that matter any other opportunity. In my opinion the only way that this event qualifies as historical is that it will be the first zipline ever strung across the Niagara Gorge. After Wallenda gets done with it they should leave it up and charge 10$ for a kid to zip across. I bet they’d have a waiting line. And then they could have Wallenda standing at the other end, handing out gorge crossing certificates after he receives his. Again I repeat that a tether reduces Wallenda to nothing more than a glorified tourist with a unique view of the Falls. When we were kids, I had a friend who hung from the Rainbow bridge by one hand. There was more danger in that than in anything that will take place on June 15th.

I implore the people of Niagara Falls don’t take a bite of this tomato-it will leave you will a hollow aftertaste that will persist for a long time.

The ghosts of Niagara implore Nik Wallenda nad ABC to do the right thing by them.

This Niagara Falls author challenges tight rope walker to do the right thing.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Nick Wallenda was asked if he would consider being tethered to the tight rope and his response was that he would never employ that kind of safety precaution. To his credit he never has in the past. The reason is crystal clear and it is because (excuse the pun) he lives or dies by playing the death card. First of all, he comes from a family of performers with a tragic history. Bad for them good for him, because he uses that reputation to his advantage. It establishes his vulnerability and puts the thought in the head of the observers that perhaps there is a curse or a jinx on this family.

In 1962 there was an accident in which the family was performing a 7 man pyramid in Detroit when one of them stumbled. Three men fell off the wire and two were killed and one permanently injured. Karl Wallenda, the patriarch of the family was on that wire and survived. In Puerto Rico, at the age of 78, Karl fell to his death. Many web surfers watch that episode repeatedly on the internet, judging by the number of hits it recieves on Youtube. It is a sequence of events that is stamped indelibly on the mind of the viewer. Few of us can erase the picture of the wobbling wire– the attempts to steady it– the crouching down in a futile attempt to grab hold of the wire–the awkward position of the balancing pole– it appears it may have gotten in the way and facilitated the tumble off the wire.

Nik Wallenda is Karl’s great grandson and comes from that legacy. It is that heritage that enhances the danger he faces every time he gets on a wire. People think to themselves “ Maybe today is the day the family curse gets him”. He also knows that it is imperative that he exploit the risk factor because– while there is no denial that walking the high wire is a potentially fatal proposition– the physical act itself is almost mind-numbingly boring to watch.. Watching somebody place 1 foot in front of the other while carrying a balancing pole is not visually thrilling. Nothing to see here—move along folks. Although it requires an inordinate amount of skill–most people couldn’t stay on a wire for two steps—most people recognize the expertise needed and most seem to have an appreciation of the difficulties involved but it is the risk of death that compels them to watch. Take that away and much of the interest goes with it. That speaks to the motive of the audience and unfortunately this is an indictment on our society that they are not there to see a successful conclusion but they want to be there in case he falls. And Nik Wallenda– in particular his family history and Niagara Falls and its history increase the possibility of that happening. Attaching a tether eliminates those possibilities and with it any compelling reason to watch.

Oh sure, there will still be the backdrop of Niagara Falls and the history of the event and the initial curiosity will get many people to tune in but less people will make the trek to see it live and I believe people watching on TV get bored quickly. If the practice sessions in the parking lot of the Niagara Falls Senaca Casino are any barometer–curiosity was the main motivation. Interest was poor at best. There were sparse crowds and the audience attention waned quickly. Why so? The wire was not very far off the ground and there was no imminent danger however many of the people that showed up and displayed little interest in this event said that they would definitely watch on June 15. The reason they gave was that that’s when it counts–translated that’s when his life will be on line.

Attaching the tether is a huge mistake and will drastically alter the complexion of this event. Aside from the elimination of the risk factor, the other question that needs to be asked is can this be considered a true tight rope crossing if you are tethered to the wire? It certainly cannot be regarded in the same measure as a Blondin who carried people across the wire or a Senor Farini, neither of whom had any safety measures in place.

It’s kind of like if someone climbs Mount Everest and doesn’t complete the journey back or is picked up by a helicopter at the top–Is that considered a true conquest of the mountain? There is actually some debate going on right now whether another climber George Mallory may have summited before Sir Edmund Hillary. Hillary maintains he was the first climber to get back down alive and should get the credit regardless.

Where is the challenge in all of this– the conquering of the elements–the summoning up of the requisite concentration(in fact one of the reasons that Karl Wallenda never used safety nets was that he felt that it led to a lack of concentration)– the overcoming of the fear. It takes an extraordinary person of skill and daring to accomplish such a feat and that is what Niagara generally requires of its daredevils. A tether not only diminishes the exceptionality of the performer but also of the venue. If you offer others the safety of the tether, stunters of ordinary ilk would crawl out of the woodwork to give it a try. What’s there to lose–nothing. There was a time when a barge was stuck in the upper rapids above the Falls with two men inside(by the way that barge is still there today) and a rope was strung out to it and the men shimmied along the rope to safety. Should they be considered tight ropists as well? Their lives were probably more at risk than Wallenda’s will be.

Why would Wallenda agree to the tether. Some say he’s more interested in the payday that is being attached to the walk–hard to believe that if he refused ABC would pull the plug on this event. He could also claim that logistically the tether would be difficult to maneuver around the stabilizing guywires. Others say that he might have gotten cold feet. He might have begun to sense the exceptionalism of Niagara. I have been saying this from the beginning. That there is a presence here unlike anywhere else and it has to be factored in.. Maybe Wallenda is beginning to get a sense of the same vibration. Maybe it has put some doubt in his mind and dented his confidence. Maybe the condition set down by ABC was genuine however the other possibility is that maybe it was fabricated– either way it has offered an excuse for Wallenda to take the safer route. It offered him a chance to duck under the apron strings. After all, he does have a wife and three children. It is reported that he also has plans to cash in on future exhibitions here at the falls but you can’t do that if you are dead. Regardless, this decision is going to have serious repercussions, the credibility of the performance and audience investment.

Had I been in his shoes I would’ve done it another way. This is the alternative that his manager Winston Simone should have proposed. It would have been the Niagara Falls version of the Snake River Canyon jump or fiasco as some people referred to it. On the surface many people probably still swear by the authenticity of Evel Knievel’s jump over the Snake River. But there are many others, who after examining the stunt a little more closely have determined that Evel Knievel probably never intended to make a successful jump. It was a staged failure to create the illusion of tragedy. I referred to it as a control or planned failure because it was accomplished with a minimal amount of risk to the daredevil(here I use the term loosely.)

Evel Knievel was probably more at risk for injury if his vehicle landed on the other side of the canyon–due to the height and the velocity it would have been traveling. We’ve seen enough slow-motion video of Evel tumbling over the handlebars of his motorcycle after jumping a row of cars and watching all the damage that was done to his body as he caterwauled across the pavement of a parking lot. I maintain that Evel Knievel never intended to be in a vehicle upon impact at Snake River. Instead he was going to be floating gently down to the confines of the canyon and that was the plan from the outset. There was only one element of danger in this whole scenario and that was that the parachute open and I’m sure it would have had all kinds of redundancy and backups in place to ensure that that happened. The danger was very minimal in this contrived failure– less than it would have been with a successful crossing. However it was a visually spectacular failure with the inclusion of heightened danger. It was a cleverly crafted hoax but one that left an observer feeling like he got something for his money.

However, the event was tainted and it impacted the respectability of the rest of Evel’s career.

If Wallenda is going to go in this direction he should at least follow the example of this script, if he wants to manufacture some excitement. First of all, get rid of the tether–the danger has to be perceived as real. After you’ve got their attention –and money– then they can judge whether it was really dangerous. Parachuting from this height would probably not work as the chute would not have sufficient time to deploy. It might break his fall enough to prevent death but serious injury would not be eliminated. Wallenda should go out on the wire and do some stunts for the entertainment value–ride a bike, lay down on the wire, whatever. At some point he could begin to mimic the wire wobble of his great grandfather. Even Nik Wallenda has stated that he has been trained to grab the wire if he encountered any difficulty. (I wonder if this was an effort to appease the network and make it seem like there was a measure of safety in place.)

In any event he should go into his great grandfather’s prefall crouch-drop the balancing pole into the gorge for dramatic effect and grab the wire. Suspended from the wire, the audience would be transfixed. At this point the crowd would be screaming. A helicopter could be deployed in a few minutes and effect a rescue–a rope ladder would be a nice touch and the visual imagery evoked from this orchestration would be priceless with a relatively minimal amount of risk. Anyway this is hypothetical meandering and speculation.

The fact is that Wallenda has stated that it has been a lifelong dream to walk Niagara and inherent in that proposition is the challenge– the challenge to the unique nature of the venue–and the powers that reside here– the challenge to the venture of life or death– the challenge to himself, his skill, his internal constitution, his pride and his courage. And the responsibility to the audience to perform in a realistic manner under authentic circumstances. And nowhere was there any mention of a tether in all of this.

A tether is demeaning to the man and to the reputation of this man’s family. A tether is a desecration to the history and tradition of Niagara and to the men and women who have gone before and risked it all. A tether is a slap in the face of to the tight rope walker profession.

A tether is tantamount to fraud.

I appeal to Nik Wallenda’s sense of pride and integrity to do the right thing. To stand up for what you believe in– what you know in your heart is the right thing to do. Don’t let a television network dictate how you conduct your performance on the wire. The wire is your domain. I implore you to do the right way or don’t do it at all.

Predictions.

I predict that at least five tragic incidents will take place in circumstances related to the Falls. One person went over the falls on the weekend of May 11/12 when Wallenda was just beginning his practice exhibitions and is presumed dead. Another person went over the Falls on the 21st and was critically injured. I predict that there will be a major incident weekend of the walk on June 15 to 17. I predict the live audience will be lower than the expectations of 150,000 people. The time of the event is not during a vacation and students will still be in school-it is on a week day and this will also affect attendance. If Wallenda does tether himself to the wire this will further lower attendance–people will not want to make the trek. I predict the televised broadcast ratings will also be impacted by the tether– initial curiosity will make the numbers of viewers high but this will drop off quickly. I predict that wearing the tether will severely damage his career after this event. Evel Knievel’s reputation was forever tarnished after Snake River Canyon. Wallenda’s name recognition will increase but people will not pay to see this type of stunt in the future and the popularity of that kind of performance will decrease.

Will Wallenda compromise his principles for financial gain? Will money win out as it usually does over pride and integrity?

Will Wallenda relent and refuse the tether and face the challenge of Niagara head on? If he does the latter and becomes a daredevil in the true sense of the meaning he will come face to face with the quintessence of Niagara and the ghosts of his predecessors will tell him that that encounter does not bode well for one’s future.

This was the president that was supposed to bring us together as a country. It has not worked out that way. In fact, if anything we’re more divisive than we have ever been in reference to class, party and race and this can be attributed in large part to the man at the helm. It also bodes very badly for the future of this country. I was teaching in an inner city school in the Bronx N.Y. during Obama’s election and I remember the euphoria that swept through the building when he was elected president.Everyone was high-fiving and wearing Obama buttons and the administrators moved televisions into the auditorium so the entire school could watch the inauguration(something that had never happened before I was told) and there was wild cheering and applause throughout the whole ceremony. I did not join in the celebration. At this point I should explain some of the demographics involved, if you haven’t already guessed them. I was a white guy temporily transplanted from New Hampshire in a school that was 99% Hispanic and African-American.That should explain the happiness in the general population of the school. But what about my “neutrality”. I maintain that it had nothing to do with skin color or did it. Certainly New Hampshire is a much more racially homogenous state than the overly diversified population of NYC and in the Bronx I was a minority of 1%.I thought that I was glad that this country had evolved to the point that it would elect an African-American as its leader. So why was I so reserved? Was I rascist as my own students had referred to me then just as people are tagged who critisize Obama now . Then it began to hit me. Here I was in a school system where I was required to pass my social studies certification in order to teach and yet my vice principal(who was African-American by the way) who also had to approve my lesson plans had failed his certification at least 6 times. This was a school in which you could walk into an English classroom and see numerous grammar and spelling mistakes on the board. This school was the product of the incompetence fostered by one of the worst policies ever adopted by this country, in my opinion, known as affirmative action. Any system that rewards incompetance is going to end up with an incompetent system and we have done that with our education system . Whoever thought that reparation should be made in the form of creating employment for unqualified people has seriously undermined what should be our striving for excellence. We gave the Native Americans land and rights to casino’s as compensation for our injustices to them. Why didn’t we give the African Americans amusement park licensing or cruise ship waterway rights or even better a toll booth on the George Washington Bridge, as reparations for their mistreatment but instead we changed laws that weakened the very fabric of our society and the principles that it was founded on. Now I know why I was so reserved during the election.It was true that Obama was African-American but beyond that he was also relatively unknown and had very little experience in areas that would qualify him to be president. I was reserving my judgement to see how he would perform in office and that reservation was probably colored by my experience with affirmative action as opposed to the color of someone’s skin but I’m not even sure you can separate the two. In my opinion, affirmative action is promulgating the racial issue in this country rather than assuaging it. I am in favor of a policy of reparatory compensation but I think some other method should be found. Incidentally, I hated the policies of Jimmy Carter and that had nothing to do with the color of his skin. His policies turned out to be a disaster for the country at the time and no one raised the racist card when he was critisized. I have felt that Obama’s policies have been just as disagreeable but the difference is that when you critisize this president you are labelled a racist. One other point on Obama that I can’t quite reconcile, is that the man just doesn’t seem to be “American”. I don’t mean in the sense of his birth certificate and all that birther stuff that I don’t put much stock in anyway but that his perspective is different than someone who is proud of his country and what it means to live here. Maybe this is derived from his experience growing up as an African-American in this country, which might not have been all that great(although it does seem that he has had an exceptionally privileged life) but his actions indicate that he is apologetic for what America has done even to the point of being ashamed. Unfortunately, with America being in the throes of a weak economy this is the wrong time for anyone but a strong pro American leader to take us out of these doldrums, just as it was with Carter. What we need now is a Reagan-essence. The problem is that there does’nt seem to be one on the horizon in either party. Nevertheless, if this president were to be judged on the merits of his resume, there is no way that he warrants a second term. His record is the worst of any American president since Carter and he should get the same reward as Carter did-rejection at the polls. However as simplified as that may seem, and even though the mantra on the Republican side is that anyone will be better than Obama, this president has many factors still in his favor. This is my take on the next election. It is said that 70% of the country is conservative in its nature. If everyone came out and just voted their natural inclinations, the election would not be in doubt. However let’s just say for argument’s sake that 10% don’t vote their convictions or are afraid of any kind of change-that leaves us at 60%-40% against Obama. The media being highly biased towards the liberal bent has the potential to sway some of the conservative vote(particularly the uninformed constituency) just by its relentless promotion of the Democratic perspective. So let’s say another 10% is coerced over to Obama. That makes the election a 50-50 proposition at this point. Or does it?. Obama may have one more factor in his favor and it is this component that may have the most devastating consequences for this country. Most of us are aware that illegal immigration is a hotly contested issue in this country. Democrats favor entitlements and those who recieve entitlements (illegal immigrants) are likely to vote Democratic. Democratics are trying to make it so that people can vote in the next election without the burden of having to produce identification and this kind of policy would bring the illegal alien vote into play. How is it that the average American can’t take out a library book with some form of ID and yet we want to trivialize what should be one of our most important civic duties such as our right to vote. Why not use the constitution as toilet paper? I contend that with the economic malaise that this country is already in, if this election is hijacked or even perceived to be hijacked in this manner, we are ripening for another civil war . All it will take is another John Brown to ignite the passion that once ran against the institution of slavery and is now coalescing for the preservation of our soverignty once again, even at the expense of bloodshed. Mark these words.

What is the pathology of a bully? How does bullying escalate to violence? Can we predict school shootings? There are plenty of questions, but seemingly few answers that have worked.

In his groundbreaking new book SSTOP School Shooter Threat Onset Predictive: The Pathology of Bullying, Violence in Schools and the School Shooter Syndrome, Dr. Robert Sneider takes on the topic that has exploded in the headlines since the Columbine and Sandy Hook shootings. His book is a firsthand account of trying to survive the violence of a dysfunctional school system in the Bronx, New York, one that was plagued by poverty and violence. “This book was a product of those experiences and a theory that I had developed while writing the thesis for my doctorate in psychology.”He proposes a new theory of combining FBI and CIA reports on school shootings with the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator to determine the likelihood of the school shooter syndrome.

He adds, “While there is no denying that access to weapons is an integral component of the school violence equation, the mental health issue is the real multiplicand and this work supports that perspective. What may surprise people is how pervasive this side of the equation is, especially if a mental health definition encompasses simply how a student reacts to stress.”

This important book adds a new perspective to the dialogue on guns, bullying and school safety. The answer that we need to be giving our children and society should be, “Yes, we can SSTOP the violence.”

SSTOP SCHOOL SHOOTER THREAT ONSET PREDICTIVE: THE PATHOLOGY OF BULLYING, VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS AND THE SCHOOL SHOOTER SYNDROME(ISBN: 978-1-61204-383-8) is now available for $15 and can be ordered through the publisher’s website:

WHOLESALERS: This book is distributed by Ingram Books and other wholesale distributors. Contact your representative with the ISBN for purchase. Wholesale purchase for retailers, universities, libraries, and other organizations is also available through the publisher; please email bookorder@aeg-online-store.com.